As part of our All Scars Painting Survivor Series, March is the first “Showcase” month with prize support from our sponsor in the form of a mega paintbrush set. Usual rules apply, fieldable unit of your army/faction of choice but something to really take the breath away.

Well I still wanted to do something I would use regularly too and narrowed my choices down to either Abaddon, my converted Storm Eagle or my alternate build Heldrake. I decided on the ‘drake as I tend to use it more often.

Time permitting it will also get a scenic base, featuring wreckage from one of its victims – an Imperial Storm Raven.

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Being as I only usually paint on a Sunday afternoon I planned on getting maybe a wing or two done today, but got a bit more than expected done. Hopefully this bodes well for the rest of the month.

This weekend saw several of the All Scars descend upon our FLGS (Tabletop Tyrants) for a Doubles Tournament organised and hosted by staff (and All Scar) member Jack Shenton.

I had arranged to partner my old sparring buddy Gary and we decided to go with a thematic list under the SAMCRO team name. I took my usual Lord, accompanied by a level 3 nurgle sorcerer, a 4 man bike squad (including champion), and a heldrake. Gary brought a Dark Shroud, a pair of landspeeders, squad of raven talons, level 2 librarian on bike, and 10 man vet squad in a drop pod armed with combi-meltas.

As organiser Jack had confirmed that for this event team mates counted as battle brothers.

Our first game was against the Tau-Eldar forces of Matt and Dave S, it was a brutal and bloody affair, I lost everything but the heldrake but end result was a 10-5 win for us (including taking the tau warlord, but losing mine).

Second game was Tau-Space Wolves of Ross and Edd (now this team up had battered me viciously in last years doubles), this was a really close run game with several really great cinematic moments. End result 11-10 win and taking both their warlords without losing ours).

Third and final round and we faced the other team that had won both their previous rounds, and it really wasnt a surprise. Tau-Eldar forces from Lee and Jack – the tau had a riptide, a r’varna and a y’varha (don’t know if they’re spelled right, really don’t care either), and a piranha. Jack had a psyker on a jetbike, 2 units in wave serpents and a pair of hornets (looked more like crayfish but nice models). We got absolutely destroyed, at the end of round 2 I had the heldrake left and Gary had a lone Talon rider and about 7 vets, no way we were going to take any more points out of them and so we conceded (though several calls of “Fromage” had been made throughout the day, all in friendly banter of course). Result 13-2 loss and both our warlords gone.

As the other games finished and we began to pack the scenery away Jack tallied up the results, unsurprisingly Jack and Lee claimed first place, but Gary and myself got a respectable second, with Ross and Edd taking third.

First off i must apologise for the lateness of this post, I have found myself easily distracted of late.

Our heroes found themselves rudely awakened with a foul taste in their mouths and surrounded by lizardfolk, thankfully Daniel spoke draconic and one of the lizards spoke a little common.

Snapjaw (the lizard) wanted to enlist the heroes to free his people from the “dragon-kneelers” that were making them work alongside the bullywugs, in return he would ensure his people didn’t interfere in their actions within the cultists base. The heroes readily agreed, especially when they suggested the heroes pose as new cult recruits to gain access and the lizards would escort them there.

The two-day journey through the Mere of Dead Men was fraught with dangers, as the merry band encountered giant frogs, a raiding party of bullywugs, another patrol of lizardfolk, and a trio of yuan-ti before finally reaching the old castle.

They successfully blagged their way in as new recruits and were assigned quarters, unfortunately they were already occupied by a nest of giant centipedes but these were soon dealt with when Adam blasted Arms of Hadar in the doorway. (Worryingly) Adam then used his disguise self ability to appear dressed in a maids outfit as he tidied up their new residence. He kept the outfit when they were given their first duties in the castle, clear up after breakfasts and take the kitchen trash out.

Dragging the heavy cans of refuse to the dump site in the corner tower they were only slightly surprised when a pair of massive tentacles lashed out. Unfortunately a mixture of bad dice rolls on their part and ridiculously good ones on mine led to Patrick’s cleric and Daniel’s warlock/cleric being grappled and pummelled. Adam and Sarah tried their best but eventually all they could do was a mercy shot to end Patrick’s suffering.

The session ended there, and we have since decided to run an extra double session this week as the season end looms in the near future and we’d like to get through as much as possible. It’s going to require some cautious play on their behalf with one or more facing the penalties of being raised (as Patrick found out in this session) but this could lead to some creative thinking I suspect.

Not as harsh at it first sounds as it was all in fun, but we each had nominated 3 other players and their particular brand of army as our chosen grudges and given our reasons for the imagined slights, match-ups were then arranged and played today.

My grudges were Gary’s Dark Angels (a popular choice) as I had lost every game against them since returning to the game, Jon’s Tau as they too had torn me a new one, and Matt’s Space Wolves for a similar reason. As it turned out, following the final round of the Vordrast Incursion I found I had a new grudge to add, the foul taste of Shadow Reaper turning my Chaos Lord into a spawn. Jay wanted to capture Morrow-spawn and keep him as his chapter masters pet and SAMCRO wanted to risk a ritual to return his true form.

Jay won the roll off and chose to go second, so with a shake of the hands we were off.

Round 1 and unusually for me it was go straight for it, bikers and spawn racing forward under the cover of night. Psychic was a mixed bag as I was able to score some damage on Jay’s scouts but I periled in the process and took a wound, doh! Jay’s response was to drop pod a unit into my deployment zone and capture an objective, though the squad disembarked on the far side of the pod so as to use it as cover to destroy one of my rhino’s, leaving its passengers to foot slog. Score 5-2 to me.

Round 2 and I passed both my reserve rolls, bringing the heldrake and Abaddon and his Bringers of Despair on to the board, though they almost mis-happed into terrain (missing it by 1 inch!) but turning their combi-meltas on the predator and destroying it. The drake dragged a marine to its death with a vector strike and later spewed baleflame over the landspeeders, melting off one of the multi-meltas. More fire came the way of the scouts, thinning their ranks and setting them ablaze while the spawn continued to move across the board towards jay’s rhino which was skulking at the rear. In return Jay got his captain and retinue in play along with his outflanking bikes who scored a cheeky bolter shot on the heldrake. His terminators began to reduce one of my marine units numbers through massed fire but their resolve held firm. Score 6-2 to me.

Round 3 the heldrake vector struck some armour plating off the rhino as it flew off into ongoing reserves. Abaddon and his boys continued to decimate the scouts and the drop pod squad but unfortunately not scoring any VP’s. Jay on the other hand, managed to take out one of my spawn and one of Abaddon’s retinue (in hindsight I forgot to even roll my FNP from the Icon of Excess, doh!) and racked up a trio of points. Score 6-5 to me.

Round 4 and I bring the drake back on, vector striking another of the drop squad and preparing to flame the sternguard. The spawn chase Jay’s rhino finally catching it and wrecking it, making its tac-squad disembark (if I’d been able to get a spawn to the side door they would have been auto killed as the couldn’t have got out, dang). Abaddon and his boys finish off the scouts with massed bolter fire and reaper cannon, finally. My bikers take down the razorback which caused the sternguard to disembark (right into the sights of the heldrake which managed to kill a couple of them though they were able to douse the flames. Jay’s turn saw his stormraven finally arrive and take out one of my bikers and the remaining sternguard charge the rest. His stalker decides to begin moving out of its cover in an attempt to get nearer to shoot at my drake, and his captains unit capture one of the objectives while continuing to shred my marine unit with massed fire. The tac-squad shoot at the spawn, killing the wounded one and reducing the unit to two. In the assault my bike champion slays the sternguard sergeant (I also forgot to roll on the boon table for this, oh well) while the sorcerer and the remaining bikers take out the rest of the veteran marines (thank you Veterans of the Long War, oh and Iron Arm/Force weapon helps) before consolidating towards an objective. Score 8-8.

Round 5 The heldrake does what it’s designed for and straffes the hull of the raven with its claws getting 2 vector hits on it, the first glances but the second gets through, result – immobilised, Jay rolled to see if it crashes and got a 1! As the wreck of the raven hits the ground the drake again leaves the board into ongoing reserves. Abaddon and his boys intercept the Stalker, their assault leaving it an exploded wreck. The spawn assault the tactical squad taking a wound from overwatch but reaching their targets, despite munching a few marines the resolve of the rest stays firm and they remain in combat. My sorcerer attempts to assault the landspeeders but instead drives his bike into the wall and suicides. Jay’s turn see’s the spawn taking another wound but they remain locked in combat. The captains unit fire at my remaining marine unit but the scatterfield aids their saves and they stay in the fight. Score 10-10.

Round 6 the drake returns, vector striking a rider from his bike, and then baleflaming the landspeeders again. The spawn fight on, continuing to reduce the marines numbers but in turn being reduced to a solo spawn. Abaddon and co begin moving back towards the action but are too far away to affect anyone. Jay’s final round and he takes out a couple of men from the marines squad but their still in the fight. In the final assault phase his tactical squad is reduced to a single man left facing a hungry spawn. We totalled up the last of the tactical card vp’s along with the mission objectives and the final score – 15-15!

Wow, what a great result to a brilliant game with a great opponent. We both agree, Jink should be an invulnerable not a cover save but until it changes I’m happy to exploit it with baleflamer and vector strikes :-)

As neither of us lost our warlord we both claimed a white skull each rather than a gold, as to the fate of Morrow-spawn, that will be revealed in a post on the All Scars site shortly – trust me it’s not what you expect (unless you’re a SoA fan).

Prior to the start of the month I had planned on doing 1, maybe 2, obliterators for this months pledge, however after thinking about it I decided I would prefer to do something I’m more likely to use in game more often and so decided on one of my rhino transports.

Of my 3 rhinos only one is the newer style, the others being the classic style same as my predator chassis. I decided to do the older of them, but first I needed to clean a helluva lot of dust off it (it almost looked green/grey rather than black!).

Again I fell under the painting sway, and despite planning on keeping it basic ended up trying new techniques (not all of which worked how I wanted) at the suggestion of my fellow All Scars.

First session I planned on just getting the base colours one, but got seriously carried away and almost completed it off the bat, getting the base colours, drybrushing and the rubble effect all done.

Session 2 I tried a wash of Typhus Corrosion/Lhamian Medium, wrongly thinking it would work similar to the Agrax wash I had previously used on my bikes. Having covered one section I really didnt like the result (something akin to dipping the model in a bucket of silt) and so had to clean it off and retouch the affected area before leaving it to dry.

Session 3 was on the suggestion of another All Scar member, and was my first time trying edging to help accent the edges, and I must admit after a few false starts I was reasonably happy with the finished result.

If time allows I might try to get some of the bases on my already painted minis done to match the newer ones, though I have a number of non-40K projects I really have to get finished as soon as possible.

Last session we had enough players that Jon offered to DM a second table and so this week I had a table of only four players to run for.

The party had 5 uneventful days travel left along the rough road until they reached the roadhouse and the wagons began unloading. At this point one of the cultists started trying to goad Sarah, and when it was revealed to be Mondath in disguise Patrick actually stepped in to take her on in single combat.

It would have been a brief affair had Daniel not bolstered him with clerical magic but it still wasnt long before Patrick lay unconscious. Knowing Mondath would likely finish him off the heroes risked dragging him free of her Spirit Guardians though this then provoked a trio of other cultists to join the fray.

The camp organiser kept anyone else from interfering, enjoying the entertainment, but it was only a short time before the last of the heroes dropped. Daniel, Sarah and Adam were left unconscious but Patrick had been killed.

Thankfully the camp boss stopped the cultists finishing the rest of them off and had them taken to one of the rooms in the roadhouse to recover. A zhentarim agent within the camp was able to utilise a faction raise dead on Patrick, and as they quaffed healing potions they began to explore their surroundings.

The only room that seemed to have interest was the one that had an actual lock on it. Sarah easily bypassed the lock and they found a strong room with some of the cultists stolen goods. As they searched around they realised that there was less boxes here than had been on the wagons.

That was when one of the boxes tilted backwards and a handful of scaly humanoids clambered up into the room. The already weakened party unfortunately did not last long and were soon all once again unconscious.

So that was where we left it (I wanted to prep something a little more suitable as we only have a couple of sessions left until the new season begins) with the party being taken as prisoners, but to where?

Following the success of last years painting challenge one of our members suggested a monthly one for 2015 with those failing to complete in time being eliminated from taking part in the following months.

I decided to use this as an opportunity to get more of my infantry up to spec (plus I was damned if I was going to paint another biker just yet), and pledged a 5 man squad of marines.

When it came to choosing the actual models I ended up taking 6 as they were some of my oldest models (around 20 year old plastics featuring the old knobbly shoulder pads and “shark” missile launchers) one of which was my very first conversion – a sergeant/champion that had been given a skeletal horse head and tail and massive spikes (from heroquest skaven blades) sprouting from his shoulder pouldrons.

Now previously I had been content with just 3 colours on a model but following the previous challenge I had been introduced to the use of washes, drybrushing and basing. So with a number of additional purchases from Tabletop Tyrants of paints (textures, drys, and shades), and a new drybrush I now have a 6 man unit suitable for either chosen or havocs with an Aspiring Champion, 2 bolter armed beakie marines, 2 Shark Launcher beakies and a shark launcher without his helmet.

As I have quite a lot of other projects on the go during February so have only pledged an Obliterator (2 if I get the time).